By Michael A. Smith, MD

High blood pressure is a silent epidemic that threatens the lives of one in every three American adults. That’s not exactly encouraging.

For those who take blood pressure medications, actual control rates vary between less than half to only two-thirds. And the effects are even worse in the elderly.1,2

This means that the majority of those diagnosed with hypertension spend most of their day with blood pressure levels that are dangerously elevated. Since increased blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and kidney disease, it acts as an accomplice in millions of additional deaths each year.3

Nutrients Shown to Lower Blood Pressure

Here’s an overview of the nutrients that can help you naturally manage your blood pressure. We’ve also included related clinical evidence for each nutrient along with basic dosing suggestions.

Are there other nutrients that might be beneficial in helping you manage blood pressure? Sure there are. However, since we’re an evidenced-based company and we always stay true to that, we only listed the nutrients that have human clinical research behind them.

Dilates blood vessels by inhibiting the renin system and has mild diuretic activity (diuretics decrease blood volume and blood pressure).12,13

Hawthorn demonstrated a significant decrease in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in 92 patients.14

500 mg/day

Other Nutrients with Clinical Proof

A quick listing of additional nutrients to consider:

Milk Peptides

Resveratrol

Quercetin

Garlic Extract

Olive Leaf

Soy Isoflavones

Diets that Help Manage Blood Pressure

Remember, supplements are intended to “supplement” a healthy diet. So when attempting to lower your blood pressure with our suggested nutrients, you should also consider following one of the diets below for the best results.

1. DASH Diet

DASH stands for the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension. It’s very simple and can lower systolic blood pressure by 11 points.15,16 Here are the basic components of the diet:

Less than 2.4 grams of sodium a day.

Increased potassium-rich foods.

Increase magnesium-rich foods.

Increase calcium-rich foods.

Greater than 15 grams of fiber a day.

No more than 2 alcoholic drinks a day for men and 1 a day for women.

2. Calorie Restriction Diet

Caloric restriction is the chronic reduction of dietary calories, typically by 30%, but without malnutrition. Restriction in energy intake slows down the body’s growth processes, causing a focus on protective repair mechanisms. The overall effect is an improvement in several measures of health.

Keep a Blood Pressure Diary

Here’s a suggestion for monitoring your own progress: Run your own one-person clinical trial. Start off by keeping a blood pressure diary to pinpoint your average blood pressure reading. Then, choose a nutrient from above and continue to document your results. This is a great way to tell what is actually working and making a difference.

9
comments
:

Great article on some ways to lower blood pressure through diet and natural supplements. To focus on one of the aspects I think the Potassium/Sodium balance is a big part.

In the paleolithic era that we evolved in there was a great abundance of potassium, but relatively limited availability of sodium. So our bodies have evolved to crave sodium, while having no craving for potassium. The food manufacturers load up foods with sodium as we like the taste of it and want to eat more of sodium containing foods. To store up the sodium in case we do not come across any for awhile.

Its amazing the impact on people's health when they simply switch to eating a large amount of potassium, and not so much sodium. Of course they do this by eating foods high in potassium, meats, fruits, vegetables.

I have a guide I sell to people that teaches them how to cure their hypertension, at highbloodpressurecures.info-Douglas Burns.

My husband is off of his hypertension medications and his reflux meds. The first step was to lose 35 lbs. and just eat a healthy CLEANER diet. Like Dr. Andrew Weil recently said, we don't have a "health care system" in this country , we have a "disease management system". It's time we started taking the state of our health in our own hands!!!!

Anonymous- It’s great that your husband was able to manage his health by making the right lifestyle changes. If our healthcare system was modeled the same way, we’d all be singing a very different tune!

Excellent .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…I’m happy to find so many useful info here in the post, we need work out more techniques in this regard, thanks for sharing. remedios para bajar la presión

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem. You should not stop taking any medication without first consulting your physician.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem. You should not stop taking any medication without first consulting your physician.